It’s that time of the year when one reflects on what has been and add up the scores. While it’s been a pleasing year on the investment front, family wise there have also been special highlights. Two of my sons graduated in December at Stellenbosch University with my oldest obtaining his Masters degree in Electronic Engineering (Cum Laude), while my middle son got his B.Acc degree, also Cum Laude. As parents we are grateful and very proud of them.
Investment wise it also went well, with my sister’s portfolio advancing by 34% this year, handsomely outperforming the JSE ALSI Total Return index’s 13.8%. She even managed to get the better of me this year, with a head !
Since entrusting half of her money to me 19 years ago (the other half went to Allan Gray then) she has not done too badly, with every R100 growing to R1600 today, a 16X return in that time, as can be seen from the graph below.
Of course, my engineering son was quick to point out, quite correctly so, that it took me about 13 years to start outperforming the index. This can be illustrated in the graph below with an investment period of just 2 years less, ie the last 17 year performance, which is much more flattering to me, and looks as if it was smooth sailing all the time. This just shows that outperforming the index over time is hard, very hard, and you have to pay your school fees in the beginning, and also be able to stick it out. In the end though, the rewards of a growing snowball and the effects of compound growth in the long term are very satisfying.
Rumours are also rife that a couple of farmers in Robertson have beaten the Sandton hedge fund mafia again this year. I can confirm that my sister and I are among those farmers.
I wish everyone a happy new year in 2025. May you be healthy, live long and prosper !
Cheers
